Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Hello,

I purchased a 1976 4001 last year on ebay, not from a private person but one of those mass listers or pawn shop. I got it very cheap.
Pickups are not original paint has heavy damage. Also the jackplate date code and serial number are(were) onreadable, looks like somebody purposly scraped it away. Other possibility is that it was worn away from the lead cables, but you never know. With great effort, a magnifing glass, wd40 (to take the rust away from the place where the crome has been removed) and checking on the backside where you can see some part of number raised in mirror image I have been able to find the number and date code. PG 4xx7. I have send a mail to John Hall about this because I want to be sure I do not have a stolen one. any other databases for stolen ric's?
I need some advice, anyway in restoring the jackplate and make the serial number more visible and rechroming? or sending it to Rickenbacker for a replacement with the same number?

2) I have a toaster pickup (for guitar) and want to put it in this bas, the resistance is about 7.6 ohms, would tha be correct? I have seen several instructions to change the wiring etc. on a pickup but most toasters, also on my 350 liverpool are encase in this molded plastic.
what should be the ohms on a 4001 toaster and what ohms are on 350 liverpool ric, 3 toasters so 3 different ohm readings?

This toaster I would like to place in the 'old fashioned position of 1/2 inch spacing, I got the pickguard already for it...but the cavety for the pickup has to be moved a little bit upwards to, I did not count on that. Can tha be done without weakening the bass?

last question on this, the color is jetglow with a white binding but I like to remove the paint to make it mapleglow, should I remove the binding also? or are the MG's around with white binding?

I have another 4001 from 1976 jetglow, it is a fretles, beatifull shine fingerboard with dots. should a do this rebuilding/changing scheme with the fretted one or the fretless one?
No I am not trying to increase the value for selling a 'fake' vintage one. I plan to keep them both, just make them a little closer to the sound of Macca's bass, hopefully the value will increase a bit, one never likes to hear that by doing this the value will go down.

If I am correct, Macca's bass was a fireglow when he first got it and it did have a (white)binding. after the special paintings and then removing all the paint overly sandpapering it, he must have sanded away the bindings also.

thanks for listening
regards
ronald, finland

Macca's bass was a 4001S, "S" for "special" and it did NOT have binding. The S models were made mostly for export at first, then became available for the home market. They have no binding on the body or neck, simple dot position markers instead of "shark fin" markers, and usually a single mono output. There are exceptions, and once in a while you'll find a base with fin markers and no binding, usually a user modification.

indeed Paul you are right,
checked the pics on thecanteen website and no bindings there.
note the headstock is still fireglow while the body was repainted.
http://www.thecanteen.com/mccartney6.html

first thought that in another pic with bad lightning that I saw a binding, but was not
regards
ronald

pictures and the first part on purchasing these basses are in:

http://www.rickresource.com/phpBB3/view ... 93#p377893
and
http://www.rickresource.com/phpBB3/view ... 94#p377894

let me know what everybody thinks.
regards
ronald

I can answer the #2 question. 7.4k is about right, and all toasters are 6 pole pickups, but the guitar part number has larger holes where it mounts to the instrument. The bass pickup has threaded holes for the adjustment screw through the pickguard. If you have a Rick high gain neck pickup on the bass now, you can swap the bottom mounting plate and the toaster you have will mount right up then. OR if you don't have a high gain, you can get a nut that is the same threading and glue it to the bottom of the toaster mounting plate and it will then work with the screw through the pickguard.

As for routing out for moving to the 1/2" position, it should be alright as up until 1975 RIC did it, and yours is a 1976.

MapleGlo deluxe basses with the shark teeth fret markers have white binding if they have chrome hardware. With black hardware they have black binding.

I would not mess with the fretless; leave it alone. Use this bass to modify.

One very interesting thing I saw in the Macca pictures you pointed to was the pickup switch position. With the horseshoe bridge pickup, he has just the HS on (2 pictures with the switch down), and in Wings with the uncovered! high gain bridge pickup, the switch is in the middle for both pickups working.

I've read prior posts on this forum speculating that McCartney really had the toaster (neck pickup) selected with the switch down, as it was likely flipped on his lefty 4001S. This would make sense, as his sound on Sgt. Peppers, Penny Lane, etc., was more neck pickup than bridge pickup (lots of bass).

David, that would make a lot more sense than him using the bridge pup exclusively back then. I could not resolve the tone I hear on those recordings and what I know/hear using a bridge HS with the cap.

Thanks everybody for your input.
Do my bust to make this look nice.

By the way, the mute pad is worn out, what material is it made of, if I can find the material I can cut one myself.

regards
ronald